Primark has announced it will start a click & collect trial soon, the fashion discounter’s first venture into e-commerce. Meanwhile, it will cut 240 Dutch jobs “to simplify the structure”.
First steps online
The Irish chain is announcing a major step forward in the digital field: John Bason, financial director of Primark owner AB Foods, told Reuters that the chain is starting with e-commerce for the first time – after years of stubborn refusal. The chain will soon be launching a new website, where customers will also be able to order online. However, they will still have to collect their orders in a physical store: home deliveries are not included as they are too expensive. “You can not get our prices with home delivery, it is that simple”, Bason explains.
The new website will be launched in the United Kingdom at the end of this month, and will come to the thirteen other countries where Primark is active in the autumn. The site will also provide information about the availability of products in stores and make the full range available digitally. The chain’s aim, in addition to increasing sales, is generating customer data: Bason hopes the 24 million active users of the brand will register, giving Primark insight into their shopping data.
Flexibility or ordinary cutback?
On the Dutch market, the fast fashion chain plans to lay off 240 employees. 200 new jobs will be created as well, so ‘only’ 40 jobs will really disappear. The company says that it wants to simplify the structure: “The changes are intended to provide clearer accountability and to provide more flexibility and more management support on the shop floor,” a spokesperson told Dutch news medium NU.nl.
The unions, however, have a completely different viewpoint: trade union FNV states that the management “wants to implement an ordinary cutback” by replacing people with some seniority with cheaper newcomers. The union calls on employees to organise and take action. The social plan for the reorganisation should be ready by 1 May.
Overtaken by the pandemic
Both interventions follow the observation that Primark is lagging behind: the retailer was hit hard by the Covid lockdowns as it did not have any online sales channels – and even now that the stores are open again, sales have not yet returned to pre-coronavirus levels.
Additionally, the chain wants to expand to 530 stores in the next five years, with new stores opening mainly in the United States, France and Italy. Bason sees a lot of potential, especially east of the Mississippi in the US. The chain also wants to start trading in Romania, with its first store planned for later this year.
